1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device and method for remotely receiving securities based information and placing transaction orders for securities; and, more particularly to a device and method for receiving securities based data and placing transaction orders for securities in remote locations by use of a portable unit which communicates directly with an information center and/or brokerage house by means of a satellite up/link-down/link.
2. Related Art
Transceiver units, which allow wireless communication, have become very popular for sending and receiving data in remote and non-stationary locations such as in a car, plane or the like. These units are primarily voice links but can also handle data by way of a modem. There are some inherent limitations to these devices and they act primarily as data links to existing interlinked sources of information such as those available by logging on the Internet.
Business professionals, including farmers and ranchers, currently receive securities based information such as stock and commodity data as well as information about weather, market forecasting, world and national events, etc., in a variety of ways. These include radio, television, Internet and fixed satellite broadcasts among others. This information, although accurate, may not be timely. This is especially true if the information is desired in a remote location or while traveling.
In many cases, such as in the commodities market, farmers and ranchers require up to the minute quotes and a means for buying and selling futures almost instantaneously. Although timely information may be available in a hard link or stationary facility through for example, Internet services, transponder broadcasts and the like, it is necessary to have concurrent remote access without the necessity of logging on or being in a xe2x80x9ccell.xe2x80x9d Additionally, ability to remotely respond to market prices and conditions by transacting securities trading remotely is a necessity in our fast paced life. Since one cannot know ones exact remote whereabouts with regard to securities data transmission or brokerage establishments, a remote system has to be fully transportable yet have access to xe2x80x9con linexe2x80x9d data transceiving links even in the remotest locations. Since one can not continually monitor any device, a portable unit for remote use must have instantaneous, remote on line up/link and down/link access while having a capability to store securities data.
Securities information including price quotations generally consist of an alphanumeric code of up to eight characters which define uniquely the security, including if appropriate, information such as the exchange upon which it is traded and its date of issue or maturity, volume, last trade, bid-ask and the like. This code is easily recognized by those in the financial community. The symbol of a publicly traded stock used by an exchange consist of no more than 8 characters. For example, the stock of the telecommunications company U.S. West is represented by USW/N, and the stock of the suitcase manufacturer Samsonite is represented by SAMC/O.
The price of a stock is represented by no more than 7 characters. The characters are comprised of an integer up to 400 followed by a fractional number chosen from the group of xe2x85x9, xc2xc, xe2x85x9c, xc2xd, ⅝, xc2xe, and xe2x85x9e. The information system uses a 12 bit code, which can represent up to 8 characters, to send and receive data. Thus, the 12 bit code is sufficient to represent a stock""s trading symbol and trading price. Where a source, such as a trader or a broker, wishes to transmit the current price of a stock, he would transmit the stock""s symbol followed by trading price. For example, to transmit that Samsonite was trading at 17 and xe2x85x9c, the broker would transmit the sequence SAMC/O (173/8).
Other symbols represent information well known to those in the financial community such as xe2x80x9cBSTBD,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cBSTAK,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cMAXSL,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cMAXBY,xe2x80x9d etc. xe2x80x9cBSTBDxe2x80x9d represents the best bid price for a stock that a market maker is willing to pay. xe2x80x9cBSTAKxe2x80x9d represents the best asking price for a stock at which the market maker is willing to sell the stock. xe2x80x9cMAXSLxe2x80x9d is the maximum number of shares of a stock a market maker is willing to sell, and xe2x80x9cMAXBYxe2x80x9d is the maximum number of shares of a stock a market maker is willing to buy. To indicate the best bid price of a stock, the broker would transmit the xe2x80x9cBSTBDxe2x80x9d symbol with the stock symbol and price. For example to transmit the information that the best bid price of U.S. West is $37.00 per share, the broker would send the following sequence: BSTBD (USW/N, 37.00). This format is used to transmit a variety of information and can be revised at any time by the system operator.
Alternative formats have the stock""s symbol as the field indicator followed by the information type indicator and its value. For example, the best bid price of U.S. West at $37.00 per share can be indicated by USW/N (BSTBD, 37.00).
Symbols used to indicate buy or sell orders also consist of no more than 8 characters. For example, a buy request consists of the xe2x80x9cBUYxe2x80x9d symbol followed by the stock to be purchased, the number of shares, its buying price, and the user identification number. The user identification number is a unique assigned identifier (PIN) that verifies the identity of the user. Thus, a user with identification number 12345 would transmit a buy request to purchase 100 shares of U.S. West at $37.00 per share by transmitting the sequence: BUY (USW/N, 100, 37.00, 12345). A xe2x80x9csellxe2x80x9d request consist of the xe2x80x9cSELLxe2x80x9d symbol followed by the stock to be sold, its selling price, and the user identification number. A user with identification number 67891 would transmit a sell request to sell 200 shares of Samsonite at $17.32 a share by transmitting the sequence: SELL (SAMC/O, 200, 17.32, 67891).
Other information such as price/earnings ratios, dividends, exchange averages, advance-decline indicators, and the like are necessary to be transmitted and received by a remote information/ordering system. Further, it would be advantageous to have means for setting warning codes in a remote system, such that the system on standby would emit a signal to alert the user upon receiving triggering information.
Such a system would use satellite technology to provide the necessary information in a timely and efficient manner. Satellite communications with mobile terminals investigated up to the present use two types of orbit, namely geostationary satellite orbits and strongly inclined elliptical orbits. The Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite constellation utilizes four equally spaced satellites in each of six orbit planes. Since the satellites are spaced at 90xc2x0 increments, one satellite is always 180xc2x0 on the other side of the earth and hence shadowed by the earth. This geosynchronous constellation provides complete coverage of the earth at all times. One aspect of the GPS satellite system is the Nudet Detection System (NDS) communications link (L3) aboard GPS satellites. The L3 link operates at a frequency of 1381.05 MHZ, and can transmit approximately 2400 messages per day, each containing up to 100 characters, between one satellite and one transceiver. This avenue of transmission has only recently been explored, but it utilizes an untapped resource on the satellites to down/link and up/link information. The terminals in any case use xe2x80x9csatellite hopxe2x80x9d to provide a connection between the up/link terminal and down/link terminal. This ability to provide information from one satellite to another, coupled with the complete coverage obtained by the GPS satellites make the technology ideal for the transmission of information instantaneously over vast distances.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,473,824, shows a transmitter for receiving and broadcasting quotations and a remote portable receiving unit for updated price quotations which has a display screen. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,625,363, 5,628,050 and 5,734,867 disclose hand held receiver""s with direct uplink to a satellite. U.S. Pat. No. 5,173,688 shows a hand-held receiver with an up datable system with display screen. U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,021 discloses a hand held receiving unit capable of receiving updates for things such as sports, stock and weather data. U.S. Pat. No. 3,387,268 discloses a xe2x80x9ctape watcher apparatusxe2x80x9d. U.S. Pat. No. 2,611,924, discloses a device without local memory at the receiving unit. U.S. Pat. No. 3,716,835 relates to a personal stock quotation system terminal provided with a cradle for a telephone handset and control signals for obtaining the stock information from a central computer and display means for displaying the stock information obtained from the central data processing system.
The present invention is a device and method for receiving, sending storing and retrieving securities based information in remote locations by use of a portable unit which communicates directly with an information center and/or brokerage house by means of a satellite up/link-down/link. The invention comprises portable apparatus for receiving transmitted quotations, storing them in memory and subsequently recalling them from memory and displaying them on command; and, transmitting encrypted authenticated orders for security transactions, wherein both said reception and transmission is by means of satellite up/link and down/link.
The invention consists essentially of three interactive, but distinct, components which cooperate to allow the user unfettered mobility while receiving securities information and data, and transmitting encrypted buy and sell orders to for example, customers, private parties, principles, brokers, regional and national exchanges and over the counter markets. In accordance with the invention, a portable transceiver means, capable of receiving securities information and transmitting buy and sell requests communicates with an information system which organizes the information into a compact and secure format, and an interactive communications system which continuously links the portable transceiver means to a ground station to transfer securities information and encrypted buy and sell requests between the ground station and the portable transceiver means by way of the information system. The interactive communications system comprises a satellite communication system. As used herein satellite system means a system capable of communications up/link-down/link without xe2x80x9cdead spotsxe2x80x9d or loss of signal over a wide area. In one embodiment the receiver is vehicle mounted. In a preferred embodiment, mobile receiver is small enough to be carried in for example, a pocket or the like i.e. hand held. In a preferred embodiment, a remote data based system for retrieving and storing the current bid and asked prices on exchange and/or OTC markets is provided. In a further embodiment, the receiver contains coded alarm means which can be set for triggering upon the happening of coded received events.
In a preferred embodiment, the system is capable of transmitting qualified customer buy/sell orders for execution. In a preferred embodiment, commodity information is received. In another embodiment the receiver contains function keys which can be programed to perform specified functions. The information system is used to represent information useful to the financial community such as the name of a stock, futures, derivative or the like, along with an associated price in a compact digital format suitable for radio transmission. This information is processed using digital data processing equipment well known by those skilled in the art. Along with financial information such as a stock""s name and price, the information system is also capable of representing necessary buy and sell information such as a customer identification number, buy price or sell price, the number of shares to buy or sell, best bid price, best asked price, and the like. Warning codes are included to warn the user of the occurrence of preset conditions in the market. Information transmitted from the transceiver is secured by encryption and authentication.
Other advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following specification, claims and drawings.